What are the important events that happened on January 8? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
January 8: Facts & Myths About This Day
January 8 is the 8th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 358 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is December 26, 2023 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,411,200 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘octagon’ day.
Capricorn is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Garnet is the modern birthstone for this month. Emerald is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 33 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,035 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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January 8 Historical Events
- 307 –Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by his son Jin Huaidi.
- 1746 –Second Jacobite Rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
- 1806 –Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
- 1889 –Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’— his punched card calculator.
- 1963 –Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
- 1964 –President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States.
- 1973 –Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
- 1973 –Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
- 1982 –The break up of AT&T: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
- 1994 –Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
Who were born on January 8?
- 1830 –Albert Bierstadt, German/American painter (d. 1902)
- 1897 –Dennis Wheatley, British author (d. 1977)
- 1926 –Jani Christou, Greek composer
- 1961 –Keith Arkell, English chess Grandmaster
- 1967 –Torsten Gowitzke, German footballer
- 1970 –Rachel Friend, Australian actress
- 1971 –Pascal Zuberbühler, Swiss footballer
- 1977 –Ron Pederson, Canadian actor
- 1984 –Jeff Francoeur, American baseball player
- 1988 –Michael Mancienne, English footballer
Who died on January 8?
- 1775 –John Baskerville, English printer (b. 1706)
- 1853 –Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene (Prekmurian poet and teacher in Kingdom of Hungary (b. 1788)
- 1934 –Serge Stavisky, French financier and embezzler (b. 1886)
- 1953 –Admiral Sir Hugh Binney, British naval commander and Governor of Tasmania (b. 1883)
- 1976 –Robert Forgan, British fascist (b. 1891)
- 1997 –Melvin Calvin, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 1998 –Michael Tippett, English composer (b. 1905)
- 2002 –Alexander Mikhaylovich Prokhorov, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate (b. 1916)
- 2006 –Tony Banks, British politician (b. 1943)
- 2011 –John Roll, United States federal judge (b.1947)
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